A number of standard types of missiles have been developed for carriage and deployment by aircraft. For example, the AGM-130 uses a 2000-pound Mk-84 warhead forming the body portion of the missile. A tail assembly having a control section is attached to the aft end of the warhead. The AGM-130 missile has a range of about 40 miles. Because of its weight, it is generally unsuitable for carriage by most U.S. fighter aircraft with the exception of the F-15 aircraft.
Other missiles that incorporate the Mk-84 warhead as the missile body include the LGB, GBU-15, and JDAM missiles. In each case, a tail assembly is attached to the aft end of the Mk-84 warhead in order to convert the Mk-84 warhead from a free-fall bomb to a more-accurate guided missile having improved range over the Mk-84 warhead.
More recent warhead technology has enabled warheads having power equivalent to the Mk-84 to be made much lighter. Examples of modern warheads in the 500-pound to 1000-pound weight class include the Mk-82, Mk-83, AUP, I-1000, HTW, I-800, and JAST warheads. In order to enable these warheads to be used for making missiles, a dedicated tail assembly configuration would be needed for each type of warhead, since they are considerably smaller than the Mk-84 warhead and therefore are not compatible with the tail assemblies used in conjunction with the Mk-84 warhead. For example, the assignee of the present application currently has under development three different JDAM tail kits for converting Mk-84, Mk-83 (a 1000-pound warhead), and Mk-82 (a 500-pound warhead) into guided weapons. Still further tail kit configurations would be needed for other warheads.
There is a need for a solution to the problems of lack of commonality among a host of modem warheads and lack of systems for converting the warheads into missiles.